Freedom of Information Act 2000 Request

The number of people that have been charged in regards to the Vagrancy Act in England during the past year.

Request

I would like to request the number of people who have been charged with vagrancy in England in the past year.

Response

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not centrally hold a record of the number of people who have been charged with vagrancy. In order to answer your request a manual examination of cases prosecuted during the last financial year would be required. As an indication of the work this would involve the CPS completed prosecutions in respect of 533,161 defendants during 2017-18.

Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act means public authorities are not obliged to comply with a request for information if it estimates the cost of complying would exceed the appropriate limit. The appropriate limit for central government is set at £600. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 3.5 working days determining whether the department holds the information, and locating, retrieving and extracting the information.

We believe that the cost of examining prosecutions in respect of 533,161 defendants would exceed the appropriate limit. Consequently, we are not obliged to comply with your request.

Under Section 16 of the Freedom of Information Act we have an obligation to advise what, if any information may assist you with your request.

The CPS holds data relating to the number of offences charged by way of the Vagrancy Act 1824, in which a prosecution has commenced. If considered useful, a request for this data can be made by way of a new Freedom of Information request.

Information Management Unit 020 3357 0899 IMU@cps.gov.uk